Senate admits procedural lapses in Lamorde’s probe

Cracks in the senate over the current probe of the Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, further widened yesterday as leader of the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), admitted procedural lapses in the exercise.
The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions had on the strength of a petition written against Lamorde by one Mr. George Uboh, on alleged diversion of N2.5trillion seized funds from corrupt politicians, commenced investigation on the allegation two days ago, amid divergent views from senators on the exercise.
Ndume, while fielding questions from journalists over the probe, said: “I think there were some procedural lapses there, but I don’t want to believe it was deliberate because there is no way you can cut corners or use the institution of the senate to settle personal scores, it doesn’t work that way.
“After all, whatever decision you take has to be considered on the floor of the Senate and it has to be passed. So even if it is a committee recommendation, after the committee works, the report has to be presented in plenary and a simple majority will have to agree with its content before the report becomes acceptable.
“As you must have observed, I’m not used to talking about these issues; because the end justifies the means. So, if you go and make noise all over, you should know all that noise will have to be accepted by the majority of the Senate before it becomes anything. So even if the committee does the work and the senate rejects it, that’s the end of the report. So, why make an issue out of it?”, he stressed.
The Senate Leader, however, called on journalists and Nigerians generally to help the senate and by extension, the National Assembly in concentrating on developmental issues through discussion of ideas and not events or controversial issues.
“Like I keep saying, let us concentrate on ideas and things that will make this country work. These are trivialities. They do not add value to governance and the way Nigeria is. Issues like this can generate this type of opinions. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But like I said, we observed some procedural errors and we will take appropriate steps to correct the lapses”.
He debunked recent report made in some of the national dailies , that he led some other principal officers of the Senate to the Villa to beg President Muhammadu Buhari for needed recognition of the leadership of the 8th Senate senate by the Presidency, saying he has always been visiting President Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in personal capacity ever before the forming of the All Progressives Congress, APC as a party.
“I’m the senate leader of the eighth senate. My duties are there: one, to lead the legislative business of the senate. Two, to prepare the schedules of the senate. Three, to liase with other committees. I am supposed to be the presenter of all government bills. So, infact I’m supposed to be in the villa almost everyday.
“My going to villa is not supposed to be a big deal. Yes, there are some issues we had after the inauguration of the senate leadership and all that, but as you can see we have put all those issues behind and moving forward.
“The president has communicated several times to the senate, who did he address the letter to? He writes not only the senate president, but he puts Bukola Saraki,” he said, stressing that the senate has moved beyond that.